The Rodders Blog

“Seats for your Hot Rod”

Street Rods have custom interiors.

Something we can never go with out in our hot rods and that is seats. I mean a man’s got to have somewhere to park his rear end, and in the most comfortable way too. Just talk to many rodders who own 1928 pickups and see what they think of long trips.

The good thing about interiors is that they can be relatively inexpensive alternatives in choosing the style of your ride, even with your auto upholstery a couple of bucket seats from the local wreckers and your in business.

As with most fiberglass bodies, if you were to choose a roadster ( a cheaper alternative I might add) you won’t even need door trim covers straight away. Having no window mechanism these will usually be a smooth flush finish in the gel coat colour you have chosen, so add a couple of bucket seats, steering wheel and column and your in business.

If you have the steel bodies you can always cover the door trims with a piece of craftwood or ply board and paint these in the usual matt black finish. The colours to which most hot rodders use for there interiors is:       black, grey, or tan.

Ok, these will go with most street rod body colours so it won’t be too hard of a choice. Most bucket seats from earlier vehicles pre 70’s will come minus a head rest, which is more suited for the hot rod world today, though its very easy to remove a set from the more post 70’s seats by just lifting them out of their sockets and when you do have the upholstery upgraded you can have these finished off properly.

A choice taken by the more traditional rodder or the rat rod community is to purchase the old Mexican blankets and just use these as seat covers. It looks the part but again think of what style you intend to build your project.                      A streetrod would not usually have the Mexican blankets.

Bench Seats:

Standard 1936 Ford bench seat

Not every hot rod will be suited to the bucket seats, take a coupe for example or even a pickup. If you would like to try and fit 3 people in the front, bench seats are a far better choice. Don’t forget at a stage in our lives we do have children and not everyone wants to carry them in the dicky seat.

Bench seats have been the best choice for any traditional hot rod though street rods tend to stay with the bucket seats. If you are building a 4 door sedan a bench seat can be used, though if it is a tudor project you will either have to make your bench seat pivot forward or purchase a seat base from manufacturers like Glide Engineering or Wise Guys seats and Accessories.

“You can view my home made version in the video below”

Modify your seat at home.

For roadsters you can make your own bench seat base by using a 3/8 or 10mm ply board and cut these out for the base and back. You can attach these together with sides and have it as a one piece unit or do them as a separate piece and bolt them with small brackets to the body’s frame. Once that’s done all that is needed is to mould them with interior foam of the correct thickness you require, them cover them as any seat is usually done.

To find the best seating position, there are a few things to consider first. Your height should be the first, so if you are planning on chopping the top you will need to sit at a lower point. Remember you still need to visibly see the road over the bonnet at your seating position. My opinion of a good test is to put your elbow out the window and rest it on the door ledge leaving your arm either horizontal or slightly on the downward slope to the outside.

Don’t forget the old traffic lights! Yes we must visibly be able to view them from our sitting position. So if we have chopped our top too much this could become a pain in the old butt either from the law enforcement officers or from your own continual use in a city.                  (Some laws do apply to this within different counties)

Mounting Points:

All seats have to be mounted to the frame work somehow. Remember we talked about you height or even leg length for that matter!

Well the correct mounting points do become a very important factor and in most cases I would make longer supports under the floor of the body just to allow for any future adjustments. Take the first long rod run, are you going to be comfortable at the end of the trip? You won’t know until then, so make room for any possible adjustments before you apply any paint.

With all this to consider with the seating position don’t forget to take into consideration the position of the steering wheel and column. It all matters to a very enjoyable ride.

And remember that really nice interior can always come at a later date, when you have clocked up 1,000’s of miles of pure enjoyment.

Yours in rodding.

Dave Ailey

“Check out these videos on how to make your own bench seat”